"An urgent report from the Privy Council and a report from Liangzhou City stated that on June 13, the Song Army's Dingxi Army's infantrymen left Kaluo City with tens of thousands of troops. Well, the Song Kingdom is now renamed Guangwu City. The Suzaku Banner's cavalry of tens of thousands left Huangshanzhou.
After crossing the six ridges, they gathered in Jisang City, then stationed troops in Zangnan Mountain and began to attack the city."
After hearing the document read to this point, one of the commanders asked: "How come the Song army didn't figure out how many soldiers and horses they sent out? What a bunch of rubbish."
Another commander, from a tribe that had a rift with him, said coldly from the side: "Yinzhou City is right in front of us, and we have been fighting for more than 20 days. Do you know how many Song troops are there? I don't know.
, then wouldn’t you be even more useless!”
The commander in front stood up, his eyes widened, and glared at the other commander, "Dog thief! Believe it or not, I will smash your dog's head!"
"Come on, let's see who smashed whose dog's head!" Another commander did not dare to show weakness, stood up and shouted tit for tat.
The war is not going well, and the generals are holding a fire in their hearts, which will be detonated if they don't go as they wish.
"Want to fight to the death? Get out! Don't stay in the big tent, lest your dirty blood stains my blanket. This is a fine blanket shipped all the way from Samajian Samarkand."
Brother Richard's cold words temporarily suppressed the anger of the two commanders.
After receiving Brother Richard's look, he continued reading the document.
"The Privy Council asked us, when can Yinzhou be conquered? The Military Academy can dispatch various ministries to reinforce Liangzhou."
There was silence in the big tent, and all the generals lowered their heads and said nothing.
"Why are you silent? Just now, everyone looked like fighting cocks in a cockfighting ring. Why are they all gone now?" Brother Richard asked with a sneer, "Did you hear that? The Privy Council is asking us, when will Yinzhou be conquered? You guys
They are all veterans on the battlefield, please give me an answer!"
An older and more senior commander raised his head and replied: "Your Majesty, the Song Army is good at defending cities, but we are only good at field battles and not good at attacking cities. Today's Song Army is more cunning and difficult to fight than before.
No matter how we try to seduce them, they just won’t leave the city and stay in the city with all their heart, wasting away little by little with us.”
"Wuding River Valley and Mingtang River are under the control of the Song Army again. The wounded can be evacuated at any time and reinforcements and supplies can be brought up. Your Majesty, this Yinzhou City is like a millstone, with 150,000 elites, which is not enough to grind it."
Brother Richard stared at him and asked.
"Then what do you mean? Do you want reinforcements? No. Last year, the Song army took advantage of the victory to occupy all the dangerous passes. In the past six months, they have been desperately expanding and strengthening them, taking advantage of the dangerous terrain to the extreme. After the Song Dynasty's Western Army was reorganized, its offensive
Stronger, small-scale conflicts often occur on various fronts."
"The military strength of each military division is very tight. In order to mobilize our 150,000 troops and also take into account the suppression of other fronts, the Privy Council has almost all the troops and horses from the Black Mountain, White Horse, Right Wing and other military divisions in the north.
No reinforcements!"
Having said this, Brother Richard's words became even colder.
"Unless the emperor personally marches, he will bring all the guards and front troops to fight to the death with the Song army. Do you want the emperor to personally lead the troops?"
Faced with Brother Richard's questioning, the elder Tongjun was sweating.
"I don't dare! I definitely don't mean this."
"If you don't want reinforcements, do you want to give up the siege of Yinzhou? We withdraw our 150,000 elite troops, give up the siege of Yinzhou, gather troops from other places, and turn around to reinforce Liangzhou. Do you know what the result will be? Do you know?
"
Brother Richard asked hoarsely.
"A month later, when the autumn harvest was ripe, the Song army relied on Yinzhou City and took advantage of the fact that our main force was in the west, along the Wuding River Valley, and launched unscrupulous attacks everywhere. If they could grab food, they would grab it; if they couldn't, they would...
A fire burned all the food we had grown so hard for a year! Just like what they did last year in Xiazhou, Shizhou, Hongzhou, Youzhou, Yanzhou, Weizhou, etc.
Same, a fire, burn everything!"
At this time, Brother Richard was like a wild wolf, staring at everyone fiercely, and every word seemed to be squeezed out from his fangs.
"We have survived a year, and no one knows how many people have starved to death, and no one wants to know. We only know that if this year's autumn harvest is ruined again, it will be difficult for us to survive another year!"
There was silence in the big tent, and no one made a sound.
After a long time, Weiming Lieji spoke.
"Another point is that if we organize our army to reinforce Liangzhou, we must travel two to three thousand miles, cross the Yellow River, and enter the land west of Hexi. Not only can the Song army wait for work, but their plain... Jingyuan army can be with us.
After crossing the Yellow River, they slowly approached from behind. The Dingxi Army was in front and the Jingyuan Army was behind, surrounding us."
The Xia Kingdom was unwilling to call them Ping Xia Army, and would rather call them Jingyuan Army instead.
Wei Minglieji said worriedly: "The Song army has tens of thousands of cavalry, and its mobility is no worse than our army. I heard that it has also compiled new infantry tactics and is not afraid of fighting with our army in the field. The information collected by the military departments is also
This is confirmed. In the past year, the Song army has used small-scale conflicts with our army to continuously improve their new tactics."
"From a losing streak to a small defeat, and then from a draw to a small victory, the Song Army has now dared to take the initiative and challenge our army to fight in the wild. Everyone, the Song Army has made progress in everything from spirit to tactics to weapons and armor.
A great leap forward. I believe that when our army reinforces Liangzhou, the Song army will gather many troops without hesitation and fight our army in the area south of Liangzhou and west of the Yellow River."
Weiming Lieji spread out a sheepskin map, pointed to that place and said: "Here, west of the Yellow River of Lingbo Mountain, Liangzhou in the northwest, Xingqing Prefecture in the northeast, and Weizhou in the east are all far apart.
We were unable to obtain enough food supplies to support the decisive battle. With the Song army backed by Lanzhou and Huizhou, they could definitely fight a war of attrition with us. Even if we did not lose or win, our army, which had been short of food and food for a month, would have been defeated first.
"
"The Song Dynasty can die 200,000 and 300,000, and it can continue to make a comeback next year. How many people can our Xia Kingdom die? 200,000, or 300,000?" Brother Richard asked sharply.
There was silence again.
Brother Richard exclaimed: "This is the strategy! It's like a national player laying out his chess pieces. The Song army has now taken the lead, and all the chess pieces have been settled. We are forced to be in a dilemma. If we take a step forward, we will die, if we take a step back, we will die."
Where to go? It’s like walking on thin ice!”
"Your Majesty, it is a matter of life and death for the Xia Kingdom. Please make your decision."
"I've made up my mind?" Brother Richard smiled bitterly, and his heart was full of bitterness.
In this Privy Council Military Report, you are forcing yourself to make a decision. You have made the decision yourself, and if you fail, you must bear the blame.
The imperial brother, who was always decisive, put this big problem on himself because he understood the mystery behind it. Therefore, he did not want to make this decision that required huge responsibility, and he did not dare to make it.
After successive defeats, the dissatisfaction between the various forces in the DPRK and China towards the emperor's brother has reached the extreme. If he loses again, a coup will most likely occur.
The nobles of the Xia Kingdom and the big leaders of the tribes all have considerable strength and their own interests. If they see no hope, they will make a new decision without hesitation.
Thinking of this, Brother Richard closed his eyes to prevent pain from overflowing from his eyes and being seen by people with different thoughts in the big tent.
"Reporting to the Privy Council, our army is fighting hard against Yinzhou and is at a stalemate. Please give us a little more time, and we will definitely be able to recover Yinzhou City."
Finally, Brother Richard made a difficult decision.
When the generals heard this, they breathed a sigh of relief.
After everyone left, Wei Minglieji walked up to Brother Richard and called softly: "Your Majesty..."
"Leji, give me a hand." Brother Richard said.
The fierce battle in his mind just now consumed too much energy and made his legs weak.
Wei Minglieji helped Brother Richard up and asked, "My lord, did you choose to give up Liangzhou to protect Henan?"
Brother Richard, with the support of Wei Minglieji, walked slowly around the tent, activating his energy and blood.
"Lie Ji, Liangzhou City has been lost and can be regained. If the food in Henan is taken away again, next year will be really difficult."
Brother Richard replied weakly.
As he walked around, his legs gradually returned to normal, his confidence began to return, and the tone of his words became stronger.
"Liangzhou City, a thousand-year-old ancient city, has always been the greatest achievement in the northwest, second only to Xi'an. The walls are tall and the city is majestic and extremely strong. Liangzhou City has 60,000 soldiers and civilians, and there is food mobilized from Gansha Prefecture, which is enough to last for half a year."
"So what if there are tens of thousands of Song troops? Even if the Song people mobilized 100,000 or 200,000 troops, it would be difficult to conquer in half a year! When the autumn harvest is completed in two months, we can take a breather, have sufficient food and grass, and have stable people, and then march westward.
Come on. It’s not certain who will win when the time comes!”
Chapter 164 Richard Brother’s Decision This chapter has been completed!